Janesville Ratifies New Local Agreement

[boz2730]

Local 95 OKs contract with GM
By JIM LEUTE ( Contact ) Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008


JANESVILLE — Concessionary yet competitive.

That’s how United Auto Workers Local 95 leaders characterized a contract that’s considered a cornerstone to any chance a local coalition has to maintain a General Motors presence in Janesville.

The local contract ratified Friday is expected to be part of a presentation a diverse leadership group will make soon to GM officials who announced in June that a dying market for full-size sport utility vehicles would end production in Janesville by 2010 at the latest.

By an overwhelming margin Friday, Local 95 members ratified the four-year agreement that union and company negotiators reached earlier this week. The negotiations stretched for 14 months, a period when union officials said they went from a strong bargaining position to one overshadowed by extensive layoffs and a plant closing.

Union members ratified a national contract last fall that sets wages, benefits and policy on broad matters. The local contract covers particular operations in a plant, such as the amount of work performed by union members that can be given to outside suppliers. It also deals with job standards, worker classifications, seniority rights and grievances.

Continues at LINK


http://gazettextra.com/news/2008/aug...s-contract-gm/

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Hopefully they will be able to retool or better yet, build a new plant in Janesville for future product allocation.

[mjd1001]

My computer is acting up and won't open any hotlinks now for some reason, so I can't read the full article.....so just where is Janesville? what state? It doesn't say anywhere in the title or the portion of the article you posted.

[bone]

Originally Posted by mjd1001

My computer is acting up and won't open any hotlinks now for some reason, so I can't read the full article.....so just where is Janesville? what state? It doesn't say anywhere in the title or the portion of the article you posted.

I believe Janesville is in Wisconsin close enough to Green Bay so that Monday shifts are affected by Packer home games. In addition to SUVs, I understand they produce medium trucks as well.

[AndrewGS]

I really want Janesville to stay open. It's GM's oldest plant and probably the oldest plant still producing automobiles. That history should be a part of the plant and used as a marketing tool.

[Clocker]

The contract ratified Friday is a “competitive operating agreement” that GM is using as a new standard to assess each plant’s commitment to world-class manufacturing. Under what GM calls its “True North” system, plants and their local contracts are scored on a 100-point basis.

Local 95 officials said recent Toyota contracts, as well as ratified deals at GM plants in Lansing and Pontiac, Mich., scored in the mid-90s.

Dohner said the contract should score out at 100 percent, which would generate a lot of attention in Detroit.

“It’s basically about flexibility and how low cost you can run the plant,” Dohner said. “It gives us the ability to run this plant like a Toyota plant.

“Just give us the chance, and we can do it.”

How sad is it that GM has to say they are closing the plant in order for the UAW to finally offer to be flexible enough in their work rules to compete with Toyota. Too little too late for the UAW in this case.

Maybe the other UAW plants will learn from Janesville's mistake? I doubt it.

[boz2730]

Originally Posted by mjd1001

My computer is acting up and won't open any hotlinks now for some reason, so I can't read the full article.....so just where is Janesville? what state? It doesn't say anywhere in the title or the portion of the article you posted.

Janesville Assembly is in Southern Wisconsin, just south of Madison. They currently produce full-size SUV's (GMT-900) and the NPR Isuzu line. It is also the oldest operating GM plant in the world, built in 1919. Originally built to produce Samson tractors, it was then converted by GM in 1923 to build automobiles.

[GMCSonoma]

Originally Posted by bone

I believe Janesville is in Wisconsin close enough to Green Bay so that Monday shifts are affected by Packer home games. In addition to SUVs, I understand they produce medium trucks as well.

They are much closer to Chicago than Green Bay...

I had the pleasure to have toured Janesville Assembly 3 times in my career....and in those 3 times I found a very clean & organized plant where everyone was very-very kind & gracious to my parts managers group during our respective tours & presentations...